Method of insulating using spray-on dry fibrous insulation

ABSTRACT

A method of applying dry and substantially thermal and acoustical insulation by spraying an air entrained stream of high velocity pils into cavities, including vertical wall cavities, without having to use any insulation securing means is disclosed. A nozzle system is used that comprises a shredder section for reducing the size of the pieces of insulation to pil size and an accelerator section for increasing the velocity of a stream of air suspended pils for improved just-installed insulation integrity or strength.

The present invention involves a method of insulating cavities in astructure by spraying in substantially dry to fully dry fibrousinsulation.

BACKGROUND

It is conventional to pump or blow loose fill fibrous insulation intoattics, walls, etc. of houses and other buildings. It is also known toadd a binder, de-dusting oil, anti-static agent and/or fungicide tosmall pieces of fiberglass, mineral wool or other fibrous insulation inor near a blowing nozzle to prevent settling, sparking and mold or toreduce dust in the area of the installation during installation. Suchtechnology can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,710,4804, 4,804,695, but asstated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,952,418, these systems suffer from problems ofblockage of adhesive nozzles and/or a blowing hose. Further, thesesystems require a moisture content in the preinstalled product that isso high that the insulation requires a long drying time, two or moredays, of the wall cavity installations before wall board can beinstalled if potential mold problems, such as in the paper facing of thewall board are to be avoided.

Cellulose loose fill insulation is also sprayed into wall cavities, butto make the insulation stay in the cavity and not fall out, it isnecessary to penetrate it with water such that as much as 2-3 pounds ormore of water exists in the insulation as installed in a standard eightfoot high wall cavity formed by the standard construction of 8 foot,2″×4″ inch studs on 16 inch centers. Such an installation takes days todry sufficiently to install wallboard. It is known to add a powderadhesive to the cellulose insulation prior to injecting water into theblow to reduce the amount of water needed to get the cellulose to stickto the wall of the cavity as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,960, butthe just installed insulation still contains much more than 15 percentwater.

It is also known to spray clumps of fiber glass insulation coated withwater and a non-foaming binder into wall cavities followed by rolling atleast about an inch of excess insulation thickness down to the thicknessof the wall studs followed by spraying additional clumps of insulationinto any thin spots or unfilled cavities and apparently again rollingexcess thickness down to the thickness of the studs. As disclosed inU.S. Pat. No. 5,641,368, the installed insulation is reported to have amoisture content of less than about 35 wt. percent and moisture contentsof less than 10 percent are disclosed for some examples, but it isunclear how long after installation the samples were removed fortesting. When using lower moisture content, the clumps do not stick wellto certain conventional linings of wall cavities and the rolledinsulation tends to spring back in some areas. Also, the additional stepof spraying a second time slows the building installation process.Nozzles for spraying water on or an aqueous binder onto clumps ofinsulation while the latter are inside the nozzle are shown in U.S. Pat.Nos. 4,923,121 and 5,921,055, but these nozzles from liquid and binderstriking the inside walls of the nozzle causing fiber and particles tobuild up on the inside of the nozzle.

A nozzle for coating clumps of insulation after they exit the nozzle isdisclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,187,983, but this nozzle is extremelycomplex requiring many costly machined parts, compressed air and twosets of jet atomizers, and the angle of the jets cannot be changed.

With concerns of mold problems in walls of various kinds of structuresreaching serious levels, and installed lowest installed costs beingimportant to commercial success, a loose fill insulation, particularlyan inorganic fiber insulation, that contains a low moisture content orsubstantially no moisture just after installation and that will dry morerapidly to a level suitable for installing wall board is greatly neededto reduce costs of construction and to reduce the potential for moldproblems. The present invention addresses these needs of a moreeffective nozzle and a method of using the nozzle to produce a superiorand less costly just-installed insulation product.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention includes a method for receiving a stream of air entrainedfully dry or substantially dry fibrous clumps, nodules, and pils andmixtures thereof, the pils making up only a small weight percent of thefibrous material, of an inorganic fibrous material from a conventionalinsulation blowing machine, passing the stream through a shredder toconvert the much of the clumps, nodules or mixtures thereof to pils andthen substantially increasing the velocity of the air entrained pilsprior to spraying the pils into a cavity in a structure. The spray oninsulation exiting the nozzle in the method of the invention can containno significant moisture (water) except for what may have been absorbedfrom the environment, but can have a moisture content in thejust-installed insulation product of up to about 5 weight percent, basedon the dry weight of the installed product. When the term“just-installed” is used herein, it is meant a sprayed-in insulationproduct no more than 10 minutes after installation. The air suspendedstream of fibrous insulation exiting the shredder section of thedelivery system or nozzle assembly of the invention contains at least 50wt. percent pils and this increased pils content is important to thesticking power of the pieces of fibrous insulation as it is consolidatedin a building cavity. By fully dry is meant that the insulation containsonly that amount of moisture absorbed from a humid environment and isnormally below about 2 wt. percent and usually less than 1 wt. percent.By substantially dry is meant a moisture content of less than about 5wt. percent.

The method of the invention uses a nozzle system comprising a shreddersection and an accelerator section. The shredder section can be a partof a nozzle that also contains the accelerator section, or can beupstream of the nozzle in the blowing hose, but downstream of theinsulation blowing machine. The shredder section can also be built into,or a part of, the accelerator section. The nozzle comprises an upstreamend for connecting to an end of the blowing hose that is connected to aconventional insulation blowing machine, a shredder section forconverting at least a part of nodules or clumps or mixtures thereof offibrous insulation, into piliform, pils, the shredder being either apart of the nozzle or located upstream of the nozzle and downstream ofthe blowing machine, the nozzle comprising a section for acceleratingair entrained pils coming from the shredder section and spraying the airentrained pils, dry or substantially dry into a cavities to form aconsolidated thermal insulation. The nozzle typically has a shreddersection, assembly, normally at or near the entrance end of the nozzle,to reduce the size of the clumps and the larger nodules to produce pilshaving fibers extending from the nodules and clumps that act to bond theclumps and nodules together when they strike already placed clumps andnodules.

The nozzle used in the present method can also optionally comprise ameans for permitting a fixed or adjustable flow rate of air outside thenozzle to enter into the moving stream of air entrained pils coming fromthe shredder section. The nozzle also comprises an accelerator sectionfor increasing the velocity of the air entrained material including thepils. Finally, the nozzle can optionally have one or more devices forspraying water or an aqueous adhesive onto the moving stream of airentrained nodules and/or clumps of fibrous insulation. The nozzle can beattached, at its entrance end, to a hose connected to the blowingmachine, or to a short section of more flexible working hose. The crosssection of the nozzle is normally round, but can be elliptical, square,rectangular or other polygonal shape

Usually the inorganic fibers are fiberglass, but other fibers includingslag wool, mineral wool, rock wool, cellulosic fibers, ceramic fibersand carbon fibers are included. Ideally, the average diameter of thefibers is about 2 microns or less. The clumps or nodules are mostlysmaller than one-half inch in diameter, but larger sizes can be used.Nodules are defined as very small diameter of fibrous insulation of 0.25inch diameter and smaller. Clumps are defined as having diametersgreater than the diameter of nodules and up to the conventional size ofclumps in the blowing insulation industry that are typically less thanabout 0.5 inch in diameter. The clumps and/or nodules are produced byrunning mineral fiber insulation such as virgin glass fiber insulationor fiber glass insulation containing a cured binder through a hammermill, slicer-dicer or other device for reducing material to small clumpsand/or nodules as is common in the industry.

The shredder section of the nozzle reduces the sizes of the clumps andnodules to pils (piliform) size, i.e. to pieces whose bodies are about0.2 inch and smaller with a majority of pils having a diameter of lessthan about 0.15 inch and, typically a majority of the pils having adiameter of less than about 0.13 inch or smaller. As used herein, thediameter of the pils is meant the diameter of the “body” of the pils,not the diameter to the ends of projecting fibers extending from the“body” of the pils. The projecting fibers on the pils entangle with pilsof the just-installed insulation upon impact due to the velocity of thestream of pils to provide surprisingly good just-installed integrity orstrength.

The clumps or nodules of inorganic fibrous insulation can also containconventional amounts of one or more biocides, anti-static agents,de-dusting oils, hydrophobic agents such as a silicone, fire retardants,phase change material, particulate aerogel, coloring agents and IRblocking agents. The other additives, when present, are also preferablyincluded with the clumps or nodules.

When the word “about” is used herein it is meant that the amount orcondition it modifies can vary somewhat beyond that stated or claimed solong as the advantages of the invention are realized without anyunexpected differences. Practically, there is rarely the time orresources available to very precisely determine the limits of all theparameters of ones invention because to do would require an effort fargreater than can be justified at the time the invention is beingdeveloped to a commercial reality. The skilled artisan understands thisand expects that the disclosed results of the invention might extend, atleast somewhat, beyond one or more of the limits disclosed. Later,having the benefit of the inventors disclosure and understanding theinventive concept and embodiments disclosed including the best modeknown to the inventor, the inventor and others can, without inventiveeffort, explore beyond the limits disclosed to determine if theinvention is realized beyond those limits and, when embodiments arefound to be without any unexpected characteristics, those embodimentsare within the meaning of the term about as used herein. It is notdifficult for the artisan or others to determine whether such anembodiment is either as expected or, because of either a break in thecontinuity of results or one or more features that are significantlybetter than reported by the inventor, is surprising and thus anunobvious teaching leading to a further advance in the art.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 front view of a nozzle used in the invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a pill of insulation produced by thenozzle of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is front view of another nozzle embodiment useful in theinvention.

FIG. 4 is front view of another nozzle embodiment useful in theinvention.

FIG. 5 is a partial cross sectional view along lines 5-5 of a shreddersection of the nozzle of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a view of the exterior of a portion of a wall of the shredderportion of the shredder section of the nozzle of FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 is a view of a portion of the interior of the same wall shown inFIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a partial cross sectional view of a portion of the shreddersection showing one adjustable shredder pin passing through the wall ofthe shredder portion.

FIG. 9 is a front view of an alternative shredder section, andoptionally accelerator, with a cover removed, for use alone or with theaccelerator sections of FIGS. 1-3.

FIG. 10 is a bottom view of the alternative shredder shown in FIG. 9with a portion removed to see the interior of the shredder.

FIG. 11 is a lengthwise cross sectional view of another embodimentcomprising a shredder section and shredder/accelerator section.

FIG. 12 is a cross sectional view of the shredder section shown in FIG.11 along lines 12-12.

FIG. 13 is a cross sectional view of the shredder section shown in FIG.12 along lines 13-13.

FIG. 14 shows the steps of the method of an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Blowing clumps of fibrous insulation using a blowing machine andspraying an aqueous binder mixture onto the clumps in a hose or nozzlewhile in air suspension and thereafter directing the air suspension intoa wall cavity to form in-wall thermal insulation between vertical studsis known, but problems have been encountered in getting the insulationto stay put in the wall cavities if the moisture content of the airentrained insulation is at a low level, particularly with just installedmoisture contents below about 10 wt. percent and particularly belowabout 5 wt. percent.

It is known how to make loose-fill clumps, 0.5 inch diameter, ofinorganic, mineral fibers for forming blown-in insulation by passingvirgin fiber or scrap resin bonded fiber product through a perforatedplate in a hammer mill. The inorganic and/or mineral fibers used in thepresent invention can be glass, mineral wool, slag wool, or a ceramicfiber and preferably is fiberglass. The loose fill clumps and/or nodulesof fibrous insulation for use in the present invention is made byrunning virgin fiber or fiber product scrap through a conventionalhammer mill, a slicer-dicer or an equivalent material processingmachine. A slicer-dicer cuts or shears blankets of fibrous insulationinto small cube like or other three dimensional pieces while hammermills the like machines tear and shear virgin fiber glass or fiber glassblanket into pieces, letting only pieces below a pre-selected size outof the mill by using an exit screen containing the desired hole sizes.Virgin fiber is a fiber web or blanket made specifically for sprayinsulation and typically contains no resin binder.

Any type of fibrous insulation product can be processed in a hammermill,e.g. fibrous blanket in which fibers, including glass fibers, are bondedtogether with a cured resin, usually a thermoset resin, or a blanket ofvirgin fiberglass containing only de-dusting oil, silicone, anti-stat,etc. Also, the binder used to bond the glass fibers together in theblanket can also contain one or more of functional ingredients such asIR barrier agents, anti-static agents, anti-fungal agents, biocides,de-dusting agents, pigments, colorants, etc., or one or more of thesefunctional ingredients can be applied to the fibers either before orduring processing in the hammer mill or other reducing device. The sizeof openings in an exit screen in the hammer mill are varied to producethe desired size of clumps and/or nodules. The typical size of theopenings in the exit screen range from about one inch to about threeinches and a more typical size hole is about 1.25 inches.

The clumps and/or nodules of mineral fiber such as fiberglass can alsoderive from what is called “virgin blowing wool.” This is achieved bymaking insulation fiber in a conventional manner except that no resin orbinder is applied to the fibers. Instead, only a conventional amount ofde-dusting oil and/or an anti-stat like silicone is applied to thefibers and the resultant fibrous blanket is then run through the hammermill. Other agents can also be applied to the fibers such as afungicide, a biocide, filler particles and/or IR reflecting particles,either immediately after fiberizing or in the hammer mill. The inorganicand/or mineral fibers used in the present invention can be glass,mineral wool, slag wool, or a ceramic fiber and typically is fiberglass.

The nodules used in the invention are defined as very small diameterball-like, fibrous insulation of 0.25 inch and smaller diameter and areaccompanied by clumps of about minus 0.5 inch, or larger, in diameter.The average fiber diameter of the mineral fibers can be 6 microns orsmaller, but typically is less than about 3 microns or smaller, moretypically is about 2 microns or smaller and most typically is 1.5microns or smaller. To produce the dry feed for the nozzles of theinvention, the above described clumps and nodules are fed into aconventional insulation blowing machine that entrains the clumps andnodules in a rapidly moving air stream that exits the blowing machinevia a flexible blowing hose. A typical blowing machine is a UnisulVolu-Matic® machine made by Unisul Company of Winter Haven, Fla.

A typical nozzle system used in the method of the invention is shown inFIG. 1 and the steps of an embodiment of the method of the invention andshown in FIG. 14. A blow hose 4 conveys the air entrained clumps andnodules to a nozzle system 2, having an entrance end 6 attached to oneend of the blow hose 4 in a conventional manner. The nozzle system 2 iscomprised of a shredder section 8 having a front-end guard portion 9 anda shredder portion 10, an accelerating section 12 and an optionaladjusting mechanism 14.

The shredder section 8 reduces the sizes of the clumps and nodules topils (piliform) size, i.e. to less than pieces that are about 0.2 inchand smaller with a majority of pils having a diameter of less than about0.15 inch and, typically a majority of the pils having a diameter ofless than about 0.13 inch or smaller. A typical pils made by theshredder section 8 of the nozzle of the invention is shown in FIG. 2 Asused herein, the diameter of the pils 26 is meant the diameter of the“body” 27 of the pils, not the diameter to the ends of the projectingfibers 28 extending from the “body” of the pils. The projecting fibers28 entangle with pils of the just-installed insulation 24 due to thevelocity of the stream of pils 22 to provide the surprisingjust-installed integrity or strength. While the shredder section 8 isshown in the drawings as being part of the nozzle, this is not essentialto the invention. The shredder section could be further upstream so longas the distance is not so great after shredding that the pils reattachto each other in significant frequency that the pils amount of rebound,material that fails to stay in the cavity during or after spraying,increases significantly. The shredder section 8 is identical to theshredder section 52 shown and described below with respect to FIG. 3.

One suitable adjusting mechanism 14 is shown in FIG. 1 and is comprisedof a first clamping member 15, one or more connectors 16 and a second,optional, clamping member 18. The accelerating section 12 typically hasa constant diameter portion 17, whose internal diameter is greater thanthe internal diameter of the exit end 11 of the shredder portion 10 ofthe shredder section 8, is connected to a tapered portion 13 in whichthe internal diameter is gradually reduced from that of the constantdiameter portion 17 to a reduced diameter at an exit end 20 of thetapered portion 13. The tapered portion 13 functions to increase thevelocity of the moving stream of air entrained pils or piliform,insulation 22 by at least 50 percent over the velocity of the insulationin the blowing hose 4.

By “constant diameter,” as used herein, means the internal diameter issubstantially constant, most typically is constant within normaltolerances, but can vary by at least +/−about 0.125 inch. The ratio ofthe internal diameter of the constant diameter portion 17 of theaccelerator section 12 to the internal diameter of the shredder portion10 of the shredder section 8 is typically in the range of about 0.25 toabout 0.75. The length of the tapered portion 13 is typically within therange of about 1.5 to about 3 times the diameter of the constantdiameter portion 17. The increased velocity of the stream 22 enhances abuild rate of just-installed insulation 24 in a building cavity such aswall cavity 25. The increased velocity causes the pils of insulation toadhere together better upon impact, reducing rebound and providingsufficient integrity in the just-installed insulation 24 to remain inthe cavity without collapsing or at least partially falling out.

The velocity is further enhanced in the nozzle 2 by permitting outsideair to be inspirated into the air entrained pils stream 21 exiting theexit portion 9 of the shredder section 8. The amount of air inspiratedinto the stream 21 entering the accelerator section 12 is adjustable bymeans of the adjusting mechanism 14. The adjusting mechanism 14 iscomprised of a first clamp 15 that is adjustably connected to theshredder section 8 by means of one or more movable contacting members31, typically a thumb screw. The first clamp 15 typically at leastpartially surrounds the shredder section 8, but need only be attached ina laterally movable manner of any kind. A second clamp 32 is attached insome manner, fixed or movable, to the accelerating section 12. In thenozzle embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the second clamp is adjustablyconnected to the constant diameter portion 17 using one or more movablecontacting members, typically one or more thumb screws 33. The firstclamping member 15 is connected in some way to the second clamp member32 with at least one structural member 16 that can be of most anymaterial and any cross sectional shape, typically a circle, square,rectangle, triangle, arc, oval, and other polygonal shapes. Thestructural member 16 is typically fixedly attached to the second clamp32 and slideably attached to the first clamping member 15 by passingthrough slots 19 running laterally through, or on the surface of, thefirst clamping member 15. To adjust the amount of distance between theexit end of the exit portion 10 and the entrance to the constantdiameter portion 17, thumb screw(s) 30 are backed off to allow thestructural member(s) 16 to slide in the slots 19, the desired distanceis achieved by moving the accelerating section 12 away from or towardsthe shredder section 8, and when the accelerator section 12 is in adesired position, the thumb screw(s) 30 are tightened against thestructural member(s) 16 to fix that position and maintain that positionduring operation of the nozzle 2.

FIG. 3 shows another nozzle 50 according to the invention. The nozzle 50comprises a shredder section 52, an accelerator section 54 having aconstant diameter portion 57 and a tapered portion 55 and an adjustingmechanism 56. The shredder section is the same as the shredder section 8of nozzle 2, but the accelerator section 54 and the adjusting mechanism56 are different. The constant diameter portion 57 of the acceleratorsection 54 is longer and has a plurality of holes 59 spaced apart alongthe length and around the circumference of the constant diameter portion57 to permit outside air to enter an air entrained stream of pilsinsulation flowing therethrough. The exit end of the shredder sectionand the perforated constant diameter portion 57 are a single piece. Theamount of outside air that can enter the stream of the pils insulationflow through the holes 59 is regulated by the position of the adjustmentmechanism 56, a sleeve surrounding the exit portion of the shredder 52and the perforated portion 57 in a slidable manner. Once the adjustmentmechanism 56 is positioned in a desired manner, it is fixed in thatposition by tightening a contacting member 58, in this case a thumbscrew in a threaded hole in the sleeve 56.

FIGS. 5-8 show details of a typical shredder section 8, 52 and 62. FIG.5 is a cross sectional view of the shredder section 8 across lines 5-5.This view shows the guard portion 9 having one or more optional handles5 and some means for releasably attaching the guard portion 9 to theshredder portion 10, such as with at least two adjustable clamping thumbscrews 7 threaded either to the guard portion 9 or to nuts attached tothe guard portion 9 (not shown) in a conventional manner. Thethumbscrews 7 are forced against an exterior of a wall 29 of theshredder portion 10 tightly for use, but can be backed off somewhat toallow the guard portion to be slid back onto the blow hose 4 to exposeadjustable shredder pins 23 that pass through the wall 29 of theshredder portion 10.

The shredder pins 23 enter and exit the wall 29 at an angle in the rangeof about 90 to about 135 degrees measured from the upstream side of eachshredder pin 23, as shown in FIG. 8. The shredder pins 23 can all beoriented at the same angle or at different angles, as desired, but mosttypically they are all at an angle in the range of about 100 to about135 degrees as shown by the angle 3, i.e. slanted in a downstreamdirection within the interior of the shredder portion 10, see FIG. 7.The shredder pins 23 can extend into the interior of the shredderportion 10 a desirable amount and this amount will vary depending uponthe angle of the pins and the interior diameter of the wall 29. Theshredder pins can be flexible or rigid, flexibility providing the impactforce to produce pils, but flexing to more easily release any insulationthat may be caught on the pin 23. Most typically the pins are metal, butcan be made of other materials such as plastic, rubber and wood.Corrosion resistant steel pins are typical. The pins are adjustableusing any known manner. As shown in FIGS. 5, 6 and 8, nuts 31, attachedto the exterior of the wall 29 cooperate with a threaded portion 34 ofeach pin 23. Each pin 23 can have an optional head 35 to aid in turningthe pin 23 in the nut 31. Instead of using the nuts 31, all or a portionof each hole for the pin 23 can be threaded, or another known means ofreleasably gripping the pin 23 can be attached to the wall 29 of theshredder portion 10 to hold the pin 23 in place during use and to allowits adjustment. FIGS. 6 and 7 show typical patterns for the shredderpins 23 in the shredder portion 10, but other patterns are also suitableso long as they produce enough pils to cause the substantially dryinsulation to be blown into a vertical wall cavity without collapsing.

Another nozzle according to the present invention is shown in FIG. 4.The nozzle 60 is used when it is desired to spray water or an aqueousadhesive onto the pils insulation after they exit the nozzle. The nozzle60 comprises a shredder section 62 that can be the same as the shreddersection shown in FIGS. 5-8, or can be shorter with fewer breaker pinstherein. When water or an aqueous adhesive is used it is not necessaryto break up the clumps and nodules to such an extent as done by thenozzle of FIG. 1. The accelerator section 64 is also different asoutside air is not needed because a lower pils velocity is suitable foruse when the pils are moistened with water or an aqueous adhesive. Theaccelerator section 64 need boost the velocity of the pils coming fromthe shredder section only by about 10-50 percent, but can boost to aneven higher velocity if needed. One or more spray jets 66 are mounted tospray water or the aqueous adhesive into the stream of air entrainedpils 68. Spray jets for this purpose are known as is shown in U.S. Pat.Nos. 5,641,368 and 5,921,055

To install thermal insulation using the nozzle of FIG. 4 using anaqueous adhesive, the aqueous adhesive is made up by adding the properamount of water to a tank and then adding the proper amount of a resin,preferably a concentrated solution of the resin, to the water in thetank while optionally stirring to insure proper mixing. If a powderedresin is used, more time and stirring will be required to obtain thesolution. Also, particularly when the water in the tank is cool, it maybe advantageous to heat the water to at least room temperature beforeadding the resin. Numerous water-soluble resins can be used in thepresent invention, but the preferred resin is an acrylic resin,preferably an acrylic resin in concentrated solution in water, such as aconcentration of about 23 percent. The most typical acrylic resin foruse in the present invention is a water soluble partially hydrolyzedpolyester oligomer such as S-14063 and SA-3915 available from SovereignSpecialty Chemicals of Greenville, S.C. This resin is diluted to a lowerconcentration when added to the water in a mixing and using tank,preferably to a concentration of less than 15 percent and most typicallyto about 11.5 percent.

An adjustable rate pump connected to the use tank supplies the aqueousadhesive at the desired rate and pressure to the spray jet(s) 66 throughone or more flexible hoses to properly coat the pils with the desiredamount of aqueous adhesive. Many different types of spray jets can beused and one that performs superbly is Spray Tec's 65 degree flat spraynozzle.

The resultant just installed aqueous adhesive coated pils of mineralfiber insulation have a moisture content of less than about 5 wt.percent, based on the dry weight of the pils, more typically less thanabout 4 wt. percent, more typically less than about 3 wt. percent.

FIGS. 9 and 10 show another embodiment of a nozzle suitable for use inthe invention. This nozzle 9 connects to the blow hose 4 with a nozzletube 38 and also comprises a pin-wheel 39 that spins inside a housing 40and a pin-wheel tube 42, the latter being fastened to the housing 40 byany suitable manner, such as with a weld joint. A removable cover (notshown) of the housing 40 has been removed to show the pin-wheel 39. Thepin-wheel 39 is comprised of a plurality of pins 41 mounted on an axle43 that is removeably attached to a shaft 45. The shaft 45 is driven bya variable speed drive 46 and is held with bearings 47 and bearingholder 49. A portion of the top of the pin-wheel tube 42 has beenremoved in FIG. 10 to see the orientation of the pins 41 on the axle 43.The plurality of pins 41 can be mounted in any desirable manner to theaxle 43 and can be perpendicular to the axis of the axle 43 or, as shownin FIG. 10, can be at an angle to the axis, typically at an angle in therange of about 45 to about 135 degrees with respect to the length of theaxis. While one can also slant the pins 41 towards the downstreamdirection, when the pins 41 are top dead center, it is not necessarybecause the centrifugal force created by the rotation of the pin-wheeltends to throw off any pils, etc. clinging to the pins. Every other rowof pins 41 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 10 are, most typically,attached at different angles than the two adjacent rows for the purposeof covering more of the cross sectional area of an the nozzle tube 37.

The variable speed of a motor 46 is such as to allow an RPM of thepin-wheel 39 to be high enough that the pins 41 impact entrained clumpsand nodules of air entrained fibrous insulation with ample force toseparate the nodules and clumps contacted into one or more pils.Typically the RPM capability of the pin-wheel drive will be a range offrom about 1000 to about 6000 RPM. The upper portion of this RPM rangewill allow the nozzle 37 to also act as an accelerator for the pils andnodules and clumps resulting from impact by the pins, but not for clumpsand nodules not impacted. The actual RPM used will depend upon thevelocity of the air entrained clumps and nodules in the blow hose. Inoperation the RPM should such that the striking members of the pinwheelare moving faster than the clumps and nodules and typically at least by1000 ft./minute and more typically at least by 2000 ft./min. The nozzle37 can be used alone in the invention, but more typically the exit end48 is connected to an accelerator section, such as the acceleratorsection 13 shown in FIG. 1.

FIGS. 11-13 show another shredder and shredder/accelerator embodiment,FIG. 11 being a vertical cross section down the length of this nozzle70. The blow hose 4 (not shown) fits around the outside of the larger,entrance end 71 of the nozzle 70. The interior 75 of the nozzle 70,including both a shredder section 72 and a shredder/accelerator section74 is comprised of a plurality of serrations 76 on which the airentrained clumps and nodules impact to create pils. Due to turbulencecaused by the serrations 76, most of the air entrained clumps andnodules of do impact points of the serrations 76 at least once duringthe trip through the nozzle 70. The shredder/accelerator section 74 hasboth serrations 76 for shredding and a decreasing cross sectional areafor accelerating the pils, nodules and clumps, see FIG. 11 showing anexit end 73 of the section 74.

The nozzles systems used in the invention described above permitspraying dry or substantially dry fibrous insulation containing pilsinto cavities in a structure to form just-installed insulation havinggood integrity without having to use conventional restraining means likenetting, etc. to secure the just-installed insulation in the cavitiesprior to applying wall board or other facing products. The absence ofmoisture in the dry installation eliminates the need to let thejust-installed insulation alone to dry for the conventional period of atleast one or two days before installing wall board-using the method ofthe invention, in accordance with the embodiment steps shown in FIG. 14,permits the wall board to be installed immediately, or immediatelyfollowing an optional conventional step of dressing of thejust-installed insulation to remove excess thickness.

Several examples and ranges of parameters of several embodiments of thepresent invention have been described above, but it will be apparent tothose of ordinary skill in the insulation field that many otherembodiments by manipulation of the parameters following claimedinvention. While most of the above discussion involves using the presentinvention in generally vertical wall cavities, this insulation productcan be used to insulate attics or any area that can be reached with anarray of the air suspended product.

1. A method of producing just-installed thermal or acoustical insulationin one or more cavities of a structure comprising inorganic fibrousinsulation, the just-installed insulation having a moisture content ofless than about 5 weight percent, based on the dry weight of thejust-installed insulation, the method comprising; a) feeding clumps,nodules, or mixtures thereof of mineral fiber insulation thereof into ablowing machine whereby the mineral fiber insulation is suspended in anair stream to form an air suspension of the clumps, nodules, or mixturesthereof and blowing said air suspension into and through a hoseconnected to the blowing machine, an exit of the hose attached to anozzle system comprising a shredder section and an accelerator section,b) passing the air suspension of clumps, nodules, or mixtures thereofthrough a shredder of the shredder section located down stream of thehose to produce a moving air suspension containing mineral insulationpils, the majority of the pils having a diameter of less than about 0.15inch. c) accelerating said suspension containing mineral insulation pilsthrough the accelerator section located downstream of the shreddersection to increase the velocity of said air suspension containingmineral insulation pils by at least about 10 percent, compared to thevelocity of the air suspension containing the mineral insulation pilsbefore said accelerating, to form a stream and d) directing the stream,into the one or more cavities causing most of the pils to stick to oneor more walls of one or more cavities or to each other to form thejust-installed thermal or accoustical insulation.
 2. The method of claim1 wherein the pils comprise glass fibers and the pils are accelerated byat least about 50 percent in step c, compared to the velocity of the airsuspension containing the mineral insulation pils before saidaccelerating.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the pils also contain afunctional amount of one or more materials selected from the groupconsisting of a biocide, a fungicide, IR blocker particles or coating, afiller, a thermal insulating phase change material, an aerogel and acoloring agent.
 4. The method of claim 2 wherein the pils also contain afunctional amount of one or more materials selected from the groupconsisting of a biocide, a fungicide, IR blocker particles or coating, afiller, a thermal insulating phase change material, an aerogel and acoloring agent.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein the accelerator sectionhas a tapered portion for increasing the velocity of the air suspensioncontaining said pils coming from the shredder.
 6. The method of claim 5wherein the accelerator section is spaced from the shredder section topermit outside air to enter the stream of air entrained pils before oras it enters the tapered portion of the accelerator section, the latterbeing joined to the shredder section with one or more structuralmembers.
 7. The method of claim 6 wherein the accelerator section isconnected to the shredder section with an adjusting mechanism thatallows the spaced from distance between the shredder section and theaccelerator section to be easily changed.
 8. The method of claim 3wherein the shredder section and the accelerator section are integral orconnected together, a portion of a section or portion located upstreamof a tapered portion of the accelerator section containing one or moreholes to allow outside air to enter the stream of air entrained pilsupstream of the tapered portion of the accelerator section.
 9. Themethod of claim 2 wherein the shredder section and the acceleratorsection are integral or connected together, a portion of the acceleratorsection or portion located upstream of a tapered portion of theaccelerator section containing one or more holes to allow outside air toenter the stream of air entrained pils upstream of the tapered portionof the accelerator section.
 10. The method of claim 8 further comprisinga movable sleeve capable of covering at least most of the holes foradjusting the amount of outside air that can enter the stream of airentrained pils.
 11. The method of claim 9 further comprising a movablesleeve capable of covering at least most of the holes for adjusting theamount of outside air that can enter the stream of air entrained pils.12. The method of claim 1 wherein the accelerator section is spaced fromthe shredder section, the shredder section used to convert clumps andnodules to pils, a space formed by the “spaced from” limitation earlierpermitting outside air to enter the stream of air entrained pils before,or as it enters a tapered portion of the accelerator section, the latterbeing joined to the shredder section with one or more structuralmembers.
 13. The method of claim 1 wherein the shredder is a motordriven plurality of striking members that impact the clumps and nodulesat sufficient speed to break apart many of the clumps and nodulesimpacted forming pils.
 14. The method of claim 13 wherein theacceleration is also accomplished with the motor driven plurality ofstriking members impacting clumps, nodules and pils.
 15. The method ofclaim 2 wherein the shredder is a motor driven plurality of strikingmembers that impact the clumps and nodules at sufficient speed to breakapart many of the clumps and nodules impacted forming pils.
 16. Themethod of claim 15 wherein the acceleration is also accomplished withthe motor driven plurality of striking members impacting clumps, nodulesand pils.
 17. The method of claim 13 wherein the pils produced by themotor driven striking members the pils are accelerated by passingthrough an accelerating nozzle.
 18. The method of claim 14 wherein thepils produced by the motor driven striking members the pils areaccelerated by passing through an accelerating nozzle.